Beautiful Day

[Jessica Reed]

Jessica Reed enjoyed the simple pleasure of a New Zealand summer as she lay on the great lawn of Hogwarts. Her original plan was to do some work, but her bag lay unopened beside her. Her OWL's were in just a few short months and so far Jessica hadn't opened a single book. Instead, procrastinating seemed to take up her 'studying' time. It was becoming a great habit of hers recently and she seemingly managed to do everything else but study. Hell, she even visited the Quidditch Pitch more then once. Coming to realisation of this fact yet again, Jessica decided the best thing to do was head back inside the castle and hope that she would be less distracted in her dorm.

Jessica was making her way up through the busy first floor corridor when she felt a hard thud on her back. Turning around abrubtly to see three young Slytherin boys scatter up the corridor, their wands at their sides. What Jessica then noticed, was that all her contents of her bag was now on the floor. A few remarks were made from passing students but Jessica took no attention to them, instead she restrained herself from tearing after the boys. What has Hogwarts done to me? She questioned herself as she knelt on the floor and began to gather up her things. A couple of months ago Jess wouldn't even have to think about chasing after them. She would have them beaten up before they could even think about running away.

Without the help of any passing student Jess continued to gather up her things and as she picked up a book she noticed her ink pot had smashed all over the floor and over her books. "Oh perfect." She said in irratation not really caring that now people were staring at her more for talking to herself. She knew she looked like some pathetic loser who was being bullied but Jessica really didn't give a crap. She gave them a few threatening glances before wiping the wet ink off her hand with a spare piece parchment. She crumpled it up and threw it aside and then tried the impossible task of maneuvering her books into her bag that now had a very large hole blasted into it.

 

[Patricia Styx]

Patricia, opting for one of her more casual looks, made her way up from the Sorority where she had been for the past few hours trying to complete some work away from the hustle and bustle of the Common Room where she often did her homework. As the young Prefect made her way up to the Common Room once more now that she had finished her last essay before a new week started, she gazed outside. The lake was gleaming in the lovely New Zealand sun and the view of the grounds was one to make her miss her home back in Northern Ireland. She lived on top of the mountains and had vast views of the Irish countryside, but she told herself she couldn't think of that now. No, she lived in the Styx Manor now and sure she could visit her home in Ireland during the holidays but she thought it best to not do that until she was used to the change first.

As she leaned against the window sill, watching the outside world pass her by, she let her mind wander and with no surprise to her the young Hufflepuff began to think about Ruki. She hadn't been able to think of much else since she got back to the school, which is why she had become so immersed in her studies so as to help get her mind off of him. She was still tryig to figure out how and when she started to have these feelings for her friend but so far she had come up blank. All she knew was she had a crush on him and no matter what she did; it wasn't going to go away any time soon.

Her train of thought though was quickly drawn to a halt as she heard the running and snickering of a few boys who had ran past her. Frowning her eyebrows she looked up the corridor but they quickly went down the stairs so she knew she wouldn't have a chance of catching up with them. Looking down at the opposite end of the corridor where they came from she saw a girl down on the floor, unable to see if she was hurt or what, Patricia made her way towards her. Seeing her books lying on the ground Patricia got down beside. "Here let me help." she said in a kind voice. Turning her head she recognised the girl who had been the victim. "Oh Jess, right?" she asked, not having talked to her in some time.

 

[Jessica Reed]

(So sorry, I have been really busy! )

Jessica looked up slowly when someone asked if she could help. In a case like this Jessica usually would have abused the person and told them to 'bugger off' and to mind their own business, but Jessica recognised this girl. She was Patricia, one of the first people she met at New Zealand and she was in a few of her classes. "Yeah, it's Jess." She said while shoving the last of her books into her bag, she wrapped her arms around her bag covering the hole so that books wouldn't fall and stood up. "Just to clarify, I'm not some pathetic loser who gets picked on. I would have totally kicked their asses," Jessica paused as she tried to think of the reason why she didn't kick their butts, it still was a mystery to her. Jessica shook her head, "Anyways..eh..thanks Patricia." She said with sincerity, "You're about the only one who offered." Although she didn't know Patricia at all, she was a Hufflepuff, and from what she heard, this is apparently what they were like. Jess still didn't really believe in the whole stereotype thing. Even though she had been attending Hogwarts for a year everything still seemed pretty new to her.

 

[Patricia Styx]

(No worries)

When the girl confirmed her name Patricia smiled and turned her head towards the books, gathering a few things that had fallen out of the bag and handing them back to Jess. Once she seemed to have everything and stood up, Patricia followed suit. Standing up she whipped off any dust from the floor off of her jeans and put her own bag back over her shoulder. When Jess stood up for herself Patricia laughed softly, "OK. I believe you." she said, trying not to make her voice sound contradicting. Patricia didn't know why people had to stick up for themselves. Especially to her, Patricia wasn't the kind of person to judge - unless she had a good enough reason too. "You're welcome." she replied back to the girls thanks. "Some people around here really have no manners." she said in an annoyed voice. It was Patricia's duty to be nice to people, not just as a Prefect but as a person in general, she'd like to think people in this school would at least help someone if they dropped their things. "Anyway, have you got everything?" she asked, looking towards Jess' bag.

 

[Jessica Reed]

Jessica wondered how this girl could be so nice and friendly when the pair really didn't know each other all that well. In all fairness, even though she was complaining about the lack of manners of the students, Jessica wasn't really sure if she would help someone if they had dropped their things all over the corridor? It made her think a little about herself, but she quickly let it slide when Patricia asked if she had everything. "Yeah...I'm pretty sure I do." She replied as her green eyes scanned the floor once more just to make sure. Jessica looked back up at Patricia and smiled slightly before turning around to walk up the corridor. She took a few steps up the corridor before turning back to Patricia, "Are you heading up this way?" She asked while indicating with her thumb, the direction she was going. Recently, Jessica was slowly realizing the lack of friends that she had at Hogwarts. She had Jenny...and that was about it. Patricia was the only other person who came close to being somewhat of a friend. It was a long walk back up to the seventh floor and if Patricia was returning to her dorm, they may aswell walk together? Having company was something that Jessica rarely had at Hogwarts.

 

[Patricia Styx]

Patricia nodded her head when Jess confirmed that she had everything. "Great!" she said with one last quick glance on the floor, Patricia couldn't see anything else that seemed out of place so she turned her attention back to Jess. Patricia returned the girls smile, happy that she had done something to help out a fellow classmate. When it came to things like that Patricia was a typical Hufflepuff, but she didn't mind it, it was in her nature to be nice to people - even when people weren't nice to her.

When Jess turned to walk up the corridor Patricia nodded at her question, having to think a moment about what she was doing before she stopped to help Jess with her thing. "Yeah." she said as she took a few steps to join up with jesse. "So how have you enjoyed your first year at Hogwarts?" she asked as the two started to walk up the corridor. She knew how hard it could be to fit in at a new school. She couldn't know to the same extent as Jess of course, Patricia had only been the new person in first year along with other new people, but Jess was the new person when everyone knew each other and bonds had already been made. Patricia was sure it was hard nonetheless.

 

[Jessica Reed]

Jessica pursed her lips firmly as she thought about an answer to Patricia's question, it was the first time she was actually asked that question so she didn't have any sort of answer prepared. She re-positioned her arms around her ripped bag that she was tightly gripping. "I don't really know?" She laughed and looked over at Patricia before looking straight ahead once more. "I mean don't get me wrong, the place is beautiful! Like, Salem doesn't even come close to matching its beauty. It's just that...I dunno I thought things would pan out differently." Jessica said slowly, although that probably didn't make much sense to Patricia, it made perfectly good sense in her head. Jessica thought that she would be able to hang out with her friends all the time and just relax, chill. It never really dawned on her that she would actually have to make an effort with people to have friends. That she had pretty major exams at the end of the year which hugely ate into her freetime. She was naive to think that things could go so smoothly.

If someone could have told Jessica Reed a year ago that a huge hole would have been blown into her bag by a couple of children, that she would have barely no friends at Hogwarts and that for first time she would actually felt insecure in herself, she would have laughed in their faces. However, this was the reality of Jessica Reed's time at Hogwarts and as much as she tried to deny it, it really was the ugly truth of things.

 

[Patricia Styx]

As Pat walked beside Jess she listened to the girls words. From what she could tell her suspicions were correct. It did seem that Jess's first year at Hogwarts New Zealand hadn't turned out the way she would have liked it too. Patricia felt sorry for her fellow fifth year. "I'm sure things will get better come next year." She said, with enthusiasm in her voice. Fifth year did seem like a bad year to start a new school. Between trying to get used to the new school, finding your way about, new friends, new Professors; everything that came with a new school - you had to prepare for your OWLs. The bane of every fifth years life, they were unnecessarily hard and the fact they determined most of the rest of your life it was far too much stress to put on the shoulders of a 15 or 16 year old. Or at least that was Pat's views of the whole thing.

Still she couldn't help but feel sorry for Jess. Pat would hate to have to be in her shoes. She was finding this year hard enough without having to be the new girl. "It hasn't been all bad though, has it?" she asked, hoping that she had at least enjoyed part of her year at Hogwarts.